Shannon, Queen of Scots Shannon Hartnett of the U.S. reigns over Scotland's arcane strength competitions

Her legs give her away. You have come to Mill Valley, Calif., insearch of the Queen. Could this be she? The woman approachingyour table is wearing abbreviated white shorts revealing legsthat could only have been sculpted on a squat rack, the sort oflegs seen on American Gladiators, where the Queen once didbattle. You stand and introduce yourself to Shannon Hartnett,queen of the Scottish Heavy Events, a woman who could toss youinto traffic as easily as she tosses a caber.

Instead of heaving you, however, Hartnett goes to the counterfor a cup of coffee and a nonfat muffin, leaving her dog, a pitbull mix named Athena, at the table. Admiring slackers stop topet the dog. Overseas, it is Athena's owner who is accorded thestatus of a goddess. In Great Britain--Scotland inparticular--Hartnett struggles to cope with autograph requestsand is featured in the tabloids, which cannot resist a buff,blonde, kilted Californian who crosses the Atlantic to schoolthe Scots in their own Highland Games. Hartnett, 35, is a formerheptathlete who discovered the Heavy Events 11 years ago and hascompeted in a kilt ever since. She holds eight world records andwon her fifth Women's World Championship in February.

Are you in need of a primer? Is your knowledge of Scottish HeavyEvents limited to the sight of that kilted ogre launching acaber at the beginning of ABC's Wide World of Sports? There areeight events at such competitions, which take place the worldover but are concentrated in Great Britain and North America.All events involve the throwing of heavy objects: a light (14pounds) weight and a heavy (28 pounds) weight thrown fordistance; a light (12 pounds) and a heavy (16 pounds) hammerthrown for distance; an unwieldy looking 16-pound rock called aBraemar Stone, and the Open Stone (12-14 pounds) also fordistance; and a heavy (28 pounds) weight thrown for height.Finally there is the caber, in which the athlete must pick an18-foot pole off the ground, prop it in his or her hands, weavedrunkenly for a few steps, then throw it end over end. Tossesare scored for accuracy, based on where the caber is pointingwhen it lands.

In the background are bagpipers, Scottish dancers andale-swilling spectators. It is the festive, county-fairatmosphere of such events that drew Hartnett into this tartanuniverse. Hartnett, the daughter of two teachers, finds "thedancing, the culture, the camaraderie much more interesting"than a track meet.

After competing in the heptathlon at Sonoma State, Hartnettdecided in 1989 to concentrate on the hammer throw. However, asScottish bard Robert Burns wrote, "The best laid schemes o' miceand men/Gang aft a-gley."

Hartnett's coach in the hammer, Jan Desoto, talked her intoentering the 1989 Sacramento Highland Games. "I was reluctant,"she says. "The idea of going out with a bunch of big guys andcompeting in a skirt seemed silly." She won the women'sdivision, outperforming many of the men to boot, and set severalevent records.

Sitting around talking to some of the guys after the meet,Hartnett asked where the next competition was. "You can't go,"she was told. "They don't allow women." Rather than accept that,Hartnett found out what the qualifying distances were for theevents and bettered them, embarrassing the event's directorsinto allowing her to compete. Those were the dark ages ofwomen's Highland Games. Few competitions included a women'sdivision, and some of those tended to patronize their distaffparticipants, offering what might have been called the BettyCrocker Events: the frying pan toss and the rolling pin toss. "Ihold the world record in the rolling pin," says Hartnett, whoemployed a discus thrower's spin to fling that baker's implement110 feet. "It's not a record that I'm real proud of."

In the intervening decade Hartnett has played a major role inopening Highland Events to women. While much remains to bedone--"Some places, while the men compete in front of thebleachers, I'm over by the Port-a-Potties, breaking worldrecords," she says--much progress has been made. Hartnettrecently cofounded HELGA (Heavy Events Ladies GamesAssociation), which works to set up women's events in Scotland.It is there, in the birthplace of these curious contests, whereshe is best known. Young fans line up 30 deep for her autograph,and she fields an occasional marriage proposal. (That Hartnettis discreetly dating a fellow competitor would come as adisappointment, one senses, to some of her more ardent fans.)

The Queen's popularity is based on her generosity--she givesmany of her medals to people in the crowd--and her Lilliputianstature in a Brobdingnagian sport. At 5'8", 145 pounds, Hartnettcompetes against much larger ladies. "She was very quick to pickup the different techniques that are required," says five-timeworld champion Jim McGoldrick. "She's a brilliant athlete, andshe is amazingly strong."

Hartnett owns Body Central, a health club in Santa Rosa, Calif.,but hardly limits her training to weightlifting. She surfs,practices karate, rides a mountain bike, is mad for yoga andtrekked in the Himalayas in 1998. "I love to travel," she says,"so competing in Highland Games is an ideal job."

It beats throwing only the hammer.

COLOR PHOTO: ROBERT BECK Heavy lifting Hartnett (with the hammer) has muscled her way to five world titles.COLOR PHOTO: BETH PHILLIPS FOR CALEDONIAN SOCIETY OF ARIZONA Wonder woman Tossing the caber (left) and throwing the weight for height have helped make Hartnett a heartthrob in Scotland.COLOR PHOTO: BONNIE KAMIN [See caption above]

"I hold the world record in the rolling pin. It's not a recordthat I'm real proud of."

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